“Some of us continue to have old-fashioned careers in the twenty-first century— we are doctors, professors, lawyers, and truck drivers. Yet the main economy is now driven not by what we do, but by the information extracted from us, not by our labor in any established sense, but by our data.”

“In the past, humans had to struggle against exploitation. In the 21st century, the really big struggle will be against irrelevance. It is much worse to be irrelevant than to be exploited. Those who fail in the struggle against irrelevance will constitute a new useless class.”

According to Harari, three challenges will arise from the AI revolution. <ol><li>A new useless class: A new cast for employees who fall behind the technological development as their hard-earned skills are replaced by automation.</li><li>Data colonialism: Technological inequality. Automation in highly developed countries can replace low-wage labour in developing countries.</li><li>Digital dictatorships: Governments and companies with access to information about our personality types, political views, religious beliefs, preferences, fears and desires can monitor everyone and predict and manipulate our behaviour.</li></ol>

Threats from the AI Revolution

On a smaller scale, we increasingly entrust our decision-making abilities and authority to algorithms and algorithmic recommendation systems. For example, billions of people rely on the Facebook algorithm to tell us what is new, Netflix to tell us what to watch, or Google to tell us what is true. Algorithmic systems decide if we are suited for a job, if we are eligible for a loan, how our money should be invested, or who would be a suitable partner on Tinder. Yet, we have no insights into how these decisions are made, nor do we understand the machine's reasoning.

Automated decision-making

The GDPR is a paper tiger. It offers no meaningful protection for individuals against automated decisions. Even if a decision is needed for entering into a contract or an individual has given their explicit consent, it is often impossible for the individual, the business owner, or the developers of an advanced AI system to understand or explain the processes behind how a decision was reached.

GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation

<ul><li>The Data Protection Commission of Luxembourg imposed a €746 Million fine on Amazon related to Amazon’s use of customer data for targeted advertising.</li><li>The Irish Data Protection fined WhatsApp €225 Million for unclear privacy policies and lack of transparency in how it handles user data.</li><li>The French data authority fined Google €150 Million and Facebook Ireland Limited €90 Million for failing to provide a simple method for users to opt out of tracking cookies.</li></ul>

The paper tiger protection

The exponential technological growth has raised living standards, comfort and convenience. The growth continues, perhaps even outpacing Moor's law, which states that the number of transistors would roughly double every two years. The exponential growth of technology is not limited to computer chips. Within decades AI systems will likely outcompete humans in any intellectual field, including tasks previously considered safe such as researching, philosophising, judicial reviewing, diagnosing, and financial analysing.

Exponential technological growth and technological unemployment

Technocapitalism, capitalism boosted by AI systems and other modern technologies, is increasing the gap between the rich and the poor. For example, American billionaires gained $2 trillion during the corona pandemic while parents in Afghanistan sell their kidneys to feed their starving children in the current food crisis. Today's internet seems designed to distract us with attention-grabbing and fake content that is generated by algorithms. The Web 3.0 movement is inspired by the Bitcoin philosophy, but the same system could be used to disrupt geography by forming new countries.

Technocapitalism, the Internet, and Web 3.0

Key public decision-makers should not be oblivious to the scope and the scale of the technological disruption staring us in the face. Radically new ideas from people who think outside the box and outdated protocols should be listened to regulate the current state of affairs and address the challenges and opportunities of the post-internet era.

Responding appropriately

The author is exploring how the AI revolution, and the Web 3.0 paradigm, including the Metaverse concept, will shape the human experience in the future.

A brief overview of relevant challenges in the intersection of law and technology.

crypto

Cryptocurrency

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

problemsolving

Problem Solving

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

Elaborating on the Need for Futuristic Thinkers

Children are better than adults at learning a foreign language because their prefrontal cortex is undeveloped. This immature prefrontal cortex actually helps them acquire new information with little effort. 
Adults have a much harder time learning new languages than children due to their advanced logical brains getting in the way of the more basic intuitive forms of learning.

Adults Vs Children: Learning Ability

Learning depends in part on two distinct memory systems that incorporate different brain regions: Declarative and non-Declarative.<ul><li>Declarative memory describes memorizing concrete information (e.g., facts and events — things that can be stated or declared).</li><li>Non-declarative memory describes acquiring skills and non-conscious or implicit knowledge, reactions, and habits — things like playing the piano, fearing spiders, or improving your golf swing. </li></ul>Sometimes these two memory systems compete.Activation of one can suppress activation of the other.

Declarative vs. Non-Declarative Learning

Intentionally trying to learn specific information can get in the way of unconsciously learning patterns and intuitions. <ul><li>Growing evidence suggests that language learning depends largely on non-declarative memory.</li><li>Much of language is built on patterns and probabilities rather than precise facts and rules.</li><li>When acquiring language naturally, children pick up on these tendencies without even noticing.</li><li>Even when they make mistakes, children tend to follow the general patterns.</li></ul>

Using The Right Learning Technique

<ul>
<li>When adults try to learn a new language, they tend to rely on their prefrontal cortex (PFC).</li>
<li>Growing evidence finds that learning can improve when the PFC “turns off” and allows the more primitive, less-familiarized non-declarative memory system to take lead.</li>
<li>You can’t turn back time to become a child again, but there are ways to encourage your PFC to relax so that your non-declarative memory system can take the lead. </li>
<li>Numerous studies find that <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2021.719509/full#:~:text=Mood%20and%20alertness%20improved%20after,different%20from%20the%20SOCIAL%20condition.&text=Thus%2C%20breaking%20up%20prolonged%20sitting,memory%2C%20mood%2C%20and%20alertness.">short bouts of physical activity</a> reduce prefrontal cortex activation. Listening to music or a shot of alcohol also helps.</li>
</ul>

Learning a Foreign Language: Improving Learning In Adults

It's not that you shouldn’t spend time working on your new language; you should. But instead of actively trying to focus and memorize, you’ll likely benefit from allowing yourself to experience the language. Watch TV shows, attend discussion groups, or listen to music in the language. And when you do have to remember a list of vocabulary or grammar rules, try taking a stroll first or listening to some instrumental music while you focus.

Bottom Line: To Learn More, Try Less

The basics of learning a foreign language

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Science & Nature

productivity

Productivity

communication

Communication

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

Learning A Foreign Language

Despite the fact that adult brains are far more developed than children's, adults have a much harder time learning new languages.

education

Learning & Education

Why are adults so bad at learning new languages? We may be trying too hard

Why are adults so bad at learning foreign languages?

We tend to solve problems by breaking them down, prioritizing the issues and tackling them one by one. Such piecemeal fixes only address the symptoms but not the underlying causes that perpetuate the problem. In fact, the solution for one problem often creates other problems. For example, to improve our financial performance, we cut budgets.
People start to feel frustrated and demoralized; productivity drops and performance worsens. The way to break free from this vicious cycle is to adopt a system-wide perspective and change the context in which your actions are being taken.

How We Normally Solve Problems

Our perceptions shape our performance. How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them. Your actions will perfectly match the way you see a situation. The facts don’t matter as much as our subjective interpretation of those facts.
This law explains why people behave the way they do and sets the foundation for the other 2 laws. How a situation “occurs” to you depends on:
<ul>
<li>How you interpret the past, or why you believe things are the way they are now; and</li>
<li>What you expect in the future, or the outcomes you expect from your current actions.</li>
</ul>

The Three Laws Of Performance: Law 1

Any change initiatives to address the problem backfires because the perception of the people stays the same.
The first step toward transformation is to acknowledge your reality illusion, i.e. realize that you’re not seeing things as they are, but simply as they appear to you.

What You Resist Will Persist

Our language shapes our perception.
How a situation occurs, arises in language. Most people don’t realize the profound impact of our language on our thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Language is much more than our spoken/written words. It also includes our body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, and other forms of self-expression.

The Three Laws Of Performance: Law 2

What’s “unsaid but communicated” tends to have a much bigger impact on our performance than our spoken words. Our unspoken assumptions, fears, doubts, hopes, expectations, regrets, etc. affect what we consider to be possible, important, relevant, or appropriate.
To change your future, you must first change your language.

Altering Our Language

Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.
People who are unwilling to change their views will have a negative outlook on life, as they expect things to stay the same.
<ul>
<li>Descriptive language describes past events, issues, data etc. It’s useful for looking backwards to spot trends or to analyze what happened.</li>
<li>Future-based language (or generative language) can be used to craft a totally new vision that replaces the default future.</li>
</ul>
You can’t paint a new future if your canvas is already full. You need to create space and ideally start on a blank page.

The Three Laws Of Performance: Law 3

Many executives suffer from lagging sales, declining employee morale and other problems. These issues often arise because they don’t know how to fix them. They just try some things out, but those solutions only work for a while before another problem arises. 
To truly change your company’s dynamics, apply the Three Laws of Performance: 
<ul>
<li>Don’t blame employees or products; </li>
<li>Focus on goals rather than methods; </li>
<li>Think in terms of systems instead of events.</li>
</ul>

Fundamental Organizational Change

How do companies –– in different countries and industries –– all achieve breakthrough performance when the odds are stacked against them?  The answer: By applying The Three Laws of Performance and thereby re-writing their futures.  Authors Steve Zaffrron and Dave Logan crack the code on rewriting the future for people and organizations, elevating performance to unprecedented levels.

A proven system for rallying all of an organizations' employees around a new vision and ideas for making the vision stick When something at work isn't going smoothly, managers struggle with what part of the problem to tackle first. Do they start with cost reduction? Or should they go for process improvements first? The authors—who have helped hundreds of companies and individuals change and improve—say spend time and money adjusting the systems in which people operate, rather than targeting people and their performance directly. The authors show that it's in fact possible to change everything at once—with a focus on making such transformations permanent and repeatable. Brand-new Introduction written for the paperback edition Filled with illustrative examples from Northrup Grumman, BHP-Billiton, Reebok, Harvard Business School, and many others Two experts in the field show how to make major transformations happen The book outlines a process for engaging all employees to buy-in to an improved vision of an organization's new and improved future.

books

Books

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

A proven system for rallying all of an organizations' employees around a new vision and ideas for making the vision stick When something at work isn't going smoothly, managers struggle with what part of the problem to tackle first. Do they start with cost reduction? Or should they go for process improvements first? The authors—who have helped hundreds of companies and individuals change and improve—say spend time and money adjusting the systems in which people operate, rather than targeting people and their performance directly. The authors show that it's in fact possible to change everything at once—with a focus on making such transformations permanent and repeatable. <ul> <li>Brand-new Introduction written for the paperback edition</li> <li>Filled with illustrative examples from Northrup Grumman, BHP-Billiton, Reebok, Harvard Business School, and many others</li> <li>Two experts in the field show how to make major transformations happen</li> </ul> The book outlines a process for engaging all employees to buy-in to an improved vision of an organization's new and improved future.

Steve Zaffron

Dave Logan

The Three Laws of Performance

We don’t use much of what we learn at school in our daily lives. The real-world, practical skills we acquire after school are mostly through imitation, self-learning and experimentation.Traditional, hard skills, taught after school, like engineering, accounting, programming etc., are valued and are easy to measure. However, these skills are not permanent, and may only be valuable in the job market for a short while.

The School Syllabus Is Flawed

“Build your skills, not your resume.”

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

“He who thinks little errs much.”

<ul>
<li>Dealing with uncertainties, insecurities and changes, rising above the stuff we cannot control and focusing on what we can.</li>
<li>Spending or investing time wisely, as time is infinitely more valuable than money, but is wasted.</li>
<li>The ability to change our mind and knowing that we cannot be right all the time.</li>
<li>A high level of Emotional Quotient (EQ), where we understand what others feel.</li>
<li>The ability to think through problems, situations and the decisions we make, both big and small.</li>
</ul>

Five Skills That Are Permanent

And then, a massive chunk of our lives after formal education, gathering practical knowledge to build a good life. The irony of learning in school is that we don’t apply much of what we learn in our…

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

habits

Habits

5 Permanent Skills We Didn’t Learn at School

<ul>
<li>Most adults who are juggling work, parenting and self-care find it hard to set aside time to learn anything new.</li>
<li>The desire to learn is there, as one knows the importance of upgrading one’s skill sets. The challenge is to find the time to learn.</li>
<li>The most fundamental strategy is not to spread ourselves too thin, and have only one project at a time. If we want to learn tennis, painting and coding, we need to pick one first.</li>
<li>If multiple projects are important to us, we still need to focus on learning one project at a time and pick the second one after progress is made on the first one.</li>
</ul>

Finding Time For Learning

We need to make learning as easy as possible by setting the right environment. 
We can do this by:
<ol>
<li>Having the required materials with us at all times.</li>
<li>Setting up our workstation or working area in such a way that we can start our learning session in a few seconds.</li>
<li>If we have only 15 or 20 minutes a day to learn, we can try batching together any unpleasant pre-learning task beforehand, to avoid friction.</li>
</ol>

Frictionless Learning

The hidden reason our learning projects don’t see the light of the day is that we don’t align them with our existing work, social pursuits, family time or other sources of meaning in our lives.
Example: Learning a new language becomes easy if we are teaching it to our kid daily.

Integrating Learning With Life

Most of us believe we are killing time when we play video games or watch Netflix, or simply scroll through the endless doom feeds of Facebook.
It is imperative to know that we cannot really kill time, which is eternal and which eventually kills us. We could make use of our limited time and do something productive, but it is hard as we are spoilt for choice.
Finding time is ultimately the question of motivation, and if something excites us enough, we will find time for it.

The Myth About Killing Time

When distraction is just a click away, it is hard to learn something. Time is a huge barrier to progress, but it is our choices of where we put our attention and effort that really impacts our learning.
The way out of this is to suspend all activities we normally spend our time on, like the TV, smartphones, games, and social media. Then slowly reintroduce the ones we cannot live without. This way we will have plenty of time to accommodate learning.

Distracting Alternatives

How do you find time to learn in a busy schedule? Here are four strategies I use to find time between work and family life.

strategy

Strategy

The Key to Find Time for Learning

Learning and memory benefit from active involvement. When you add speaking to it, the content becomes more defined in long-term memory and more memorable.

Say it out loud

Most of us can type very fast, but research shows writing your notes by hand will allow you to learn more.Taking notes by hand enhances both comprehension and retention.

Take notes by hand

Studying over a period of time is more effective than waiting until the last minute.Distributed practice works because each time you try to remember something, the memory becomes harder to forget.

Chunk your study sessions

Regularly testing yourself will speed up learning. When you test yourself and answer incorrectly, you are more likely to recall the right answer after you look it up. You will also remember that you didn't remember.

Self-testing is highly effective

Repeating anything over and over might not be the best way to master that task. If you practice a slightly different version, you will learn more and faster. For example, if you want to master a new presentation:<ul><li>Rehearse the basic skill. </li><li>Wait at least six hours to allow your memory to consolidate.</li><li>Practice again, but speak a little faster. </li><li>Practice next by speaking slower.</li><li>Break your presentation into smaller steps. Master each chunk, then put it back together.</li><li>Change the conditions. It will prepare you better for the unexpected.</li></ul>

Change the way you practice

According to research, regular exercise can improve memory recall.Exercise also increases a protein (BDNF - brain-derived neurotrophic factor) that supports the function, growth, and survival of brain cells.

Exercise regularly

When you sleep, most of the consolidation process occurs.In contrast, sleep deprivation can affect your ability to commit new data to memory and consolidate any short-term memories.

Sleep more, learn more

Interleaving - studying related concepts or skills in parallel - improves your brain's ability to differentiate between concepts or skills. It helps you to really learn and gain an understanding at a deeper level.Instead of focusing on one subject during a learning session, learn several subjects or skills in succession.

Concepts in parallel

Research shows that those who teach, speed up their learning and remember more.Even just preparing to teach means that you will seek out key points and organize information into a coherent structure.

Teach someone else

When you have to learn something new, try to associate it with something you are already familiar with. Then you only have to learn where it differs. You'll also be able to apply greater context, which will help with memory storage and retrieval.

Build on what you know

But what you know, and what you can do, matters a whole lot more. So let's jump right in.Here are ten ways, backed by science, to speed up the learning process. 1. Say out loud what you want to remember.

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Health

Scientific Ways to Learn Anything Faster

“The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.”

The right questions are at the heart of discovery. And one of the very first questions you should be asking yourself is “What assumptions can I challenge?”The mere act of trying to discover what assumptions you and others are making can give you a new perspective on the challenge you're facing.

Ask Questions 

Go beyond the basic features being asked for and get to the heart of the problem.Ask questions like: Who cares about this problem? Why is it important to them?If there are no good answers to these questions, is the problem even worth working on?

Discover the Core Problem

After you come up with a solution to your problem, take a close look at it.Which pieces could be split into separate modules or components? Can any of those components provide value independently? If not, can any be tweaked so that they do provide independent value?

Divide and Conquer

After spending time researching your problem,  you’ll probably find yourself also thinking about it in your spare time. This is when all the different pieces you’ve been studying for so long can suddenly click together in a new way, giving you fresh insight.

Let your Subconscious Work

Think about what would make a good MVP (Minimum Viable Product) for your problem.Get creative in what you consider an MVP. Maybe showing random strangers at Starbucks a napkin drawing of your app’s layout would be good enough for example.

Find your MVP

In today's world the most valuable employees are the ones who can tackle complex problems. And the best of those are the ones who can make the complex problems look simple. But how can someone actually do that? Below are some tactics I've used which can make a big difference.

career

Career

startup

Startups

The Five Step Approach for Tackling Complex Problems

"In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few."

Shoshin is the Japanese Zen term for a "beginner's mind' and refers to a paradox: The more knowledge you have on a subject, the more likely you are to close your mind to further learning.

Shoshin: The beginner's mind

<ul>
<li>Having an academic degree in a subject can lead people to overestimate their knowledge. Studies showed that graduate participants frequently overestimated their level of understanding.</li>
<li>Even feeling like an expert also breeds closed-mindedness. Research also showed that giving people the impression that they were relatively expert on a topic led them to be less willing to consider other viewpoints.</li>
</ul>

Overestimating your knowledge

Intellectually humble people know more because they are open to new information and more willing to be receptive to other people's perspectives.
Approaching issues with a beginner's mind or intellectual humility can help you become more knowledgeable, less overconfident, and more willing to engage with others.

Fostering a beginners mind

Most of us overestimate our understanding of various subjects, known as the 'illusions of explanatory depth.' When you make an effort to explain a relevant issue or topic to yourself or someone else in detail, it will reveal the gaps in your knowledge and expose the illusion of expertise.
This exercise can be simplified by spending a few seconds reflecting on your ability to explain a given issue to a real expert in a step-by-step manner.

Establish a realistic sense of your own knowledge

Confirmation bias is a major hurdle to being open-minded: We seek information supporting our current views and beliefs.
We can overcome this bias by being aware of it. We can take steps to work against it by actively pursuing information and perspectives that contradict our current position.

Confirmation bias: An obstacle to being open-minded

If we see intelligence and aptitudes as pliable rather than fixed, we can learn better.
A series of studies showed that intellectually humble people also tended to have a growth mindset. If you see intelligence as something you can develop, then finding holes in your knowledge opens up new opportunities for education.

The growth mindset theory

Deliberately invoking the emotion of awe quietens the ego. It also creates a greater willingness to look at things differently while recognizing the gaps in one's knowledge.
Invoking the emotions of awe and wonder, such as looking at the aurora borealis, also reduces the need to be satisfied by closed arguments.

Awe increases intellectual humility

It’s easy for the mind to become closed to new ideas. Cultivating a beginner’s mind helps us rediscover the joy of learning

How to foster ‘shoshin’ | Psyche Guides

In the 1970s, social scientists coined the term "credentialism". It is an ideology that puts formal education credentials above other ways of understanding human potential and ability.
Credentialism is again entering the higher education debate as academics and the wider public try to make sense of the current university system.

Credentialism is reducing qualifications to status

<ul>
<li>Students are unsure if their degrees are worth the high tuition fees. </li>
<li>University academics bemoan the factory style teaching system.</li>
<li>Online learning and the growth of accredited university certificates through MOOCs (massive open online courses offer alternatives) offer an alternative. </li>
</ul>
While these issues are important to debate, they ignore the fundamental value of credentials in the workplace.

Issues concerning the future of universities

<ul>
<li>A university degree is now considered to be the ultimate status symbol for entry into the middle classes across the world. It is a basic requirement for any professional occupation.</li>
<li>Certificates are not meaningless. There is still a so-called graduate premium in economic terms because employers value the added skills.</li>
<li>In social terms, a university degree provides non-market benefits that are difficult to measure, including longer life expectancy, more leisure time, social mobility, and lower propensity to commit crime.</li>
</ul>

University degree: A basic requirement

The concept of credentialism can be a type of class prejudice.
We need to ensure that university is more than a rite of passage coming together in a piece of paper. It is the role of the academic profession and higher education institutions to shape worthwhile learning. However, higher education is vulnerable to abuse without regulation, such as buying fake nursing degrees that can lead to tragic outcomes. A formal qualification should be a representation of something more important.

Beware of class prejudice

Gaining that required qualification to put on your CV is what counts to win a job in today’s “graduate economy”. On current trends, perhaps everyone will have a degree by the end of this century. Already…

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

Explainer: what is credentialism and is a degree more than just a piece of paper?

Worry is defined as a negative thinking pattern about unresolved and fearsome issues that could have serious consequences.
In life, we all have problems. But sometimes, when we are trying to use our energy to focus on solving these problems, we direct our energy to worry.

Confusing worry with problem-solving

Research shows that when asked why people worry, many say it's because they are trying to solve problems. Another study found that people believe worry is necessary to find the best solutions.
Recognising the difference and moving away from worry can help to solve your problems efficiently.

Worrying does not help you to solve a problem

Just thinking about our problem can make us feel anxious.
It causes us to worry about the issue instead of focusing on the problem objectively. Worry also feels productive. But mulling over possible outcomes (mostly the bad ones) won't get us anywhere.

Worry and problem-solving: Why we confuse the two processes

While anxiety is normal when you first identify a threat, it's not helpful when you're trying to solve a problem.
<ul>
<li>Worrying makes us feel bad, that can cloud our judgment.</li>
<li>When we worry, it takes a lot of mental effort to stop focusing on the threat and shift to goal-directed thinking.</li>
</ul>

Why worry interferes with problem-solving

<ul>
<li>When you're thinking about an issue, do you feel tense, distressed, and upset?</li>
<li>Are you spending your time focusing on how bad the outcomes could be?</li>
<li>Do you immediately dismiss all your solutions as ineffective?</li>
</ul>
If you answered yes to these questions, you might be worrying.

How to tell when you're worrying vs problem-solving

There is no such thing as "good worry". Instead of worrying, try to do the following:
<ul>
<li>When you want to focus on the problem, do so in an open-minded, calm, and non-judgmental way.</li>
<li>Define the problem.</li>
<li>Identify your ultimate goals.</li>
<li>Remember to think positive.</li>
<li>If you find yourself steering toward negative thinking, try to let those thoughts go, and refocus your mind on the problem.</li>
</ul>

Changing worrying patterns

Many of us believe that worry helps us solve problems, but does it really? Worry researchers provide insights on how to stop worrying about your problems and start solving them.

Elaborating on the Need for Futuristic Thinkers

Why are adults so bad at learning new languages? We may be trying too hard

The Three Laws of Performance

5 Permanent Skills We Didn’t Learn at School

The Key to Find Time for Learning

Iker T.